A new study sponsored by the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation found that the United States and the United Kingdom top excess mortality rates due to COVID-19.
The study notes that COVID-19 is now the third-highest cause of death in the United States, behind heart disease and cancer, while in other peer countries (Australia, Austria, Germany, and Japan) the disease has not risen into the top ten.
In its peer group, only Belgium and the UK have had a higher case-count per capita. The US ranks eighth in the world in COVID fatalities per capita among nations with more than 250,000 in population.
The US has had 840 “excess deaths” per 100,000 population since the coronavirus pandemic hit, the highest in the world. The UK has had 763. The gap is likely to get larger given the rapid spike in the number of cases in the US over the last month, combined with a lack of national guidelines.